Saturday, January 3, 2015

Floyd, Dye may not make “Hall of Fame,” but won’t be forgotten locally

Baseball
fans will learn Tuesday who, if anyone, will get into the Hall of Fame and
there already are many people speculating on who deserves that honor – along with
who was such an awful ballplayer that they shouldn’t even be allowed to pay
their way into the museum in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Yet
I was more intrigued by a pair of nominees who are highly unlikely to ever get elected
to the Hall of Fame, and may very well get so little support this year that
they won’t be eligible for future consideration for the baseball honor.

FOR
ANYONE WHO takes an interest in the Chicago baseball scene isn’t going to
forget the names “Cliff Floyd” and “Jermaine Dye.”

They
may get next to nobody amongst the sportswriters who receive Hall of Fame
ballots to cast votes for them.

But
both of them did enough during their careers that they don’t deserve to be
completely forgotten.

In
the case of Dye, he bounced around many major league clubs in the 1990s and
early 2000s and was in danger of being the guy whose career as a professional
baseball player was ruined by a foul ball he hit off his knee during the
American League playoffs in 2001 while playing for the Oakland Athletics.

THAT
BROKEN LEG caused him to play sporadically in coming seasons, and was the
reason the Chicago White Sox were able to acquire him prior to the 2005 season –
nobody else wanted him, or thought he was capable of playing regularly any
longer.

’05,
of course, was the season the White Sox led the American League all year, then
went on a streak in the playoffs, beating the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles
Angels prior to their World Series victory over the Houston Astros (remember
the constant televised site of former President George and first lady Barbara
Bush sitting in a front row seat, and bussing each other when the “Kiss Cam”
focused on them?).

Dye
wound up being a significant part of that championship ball club and even
became the Most Valuable Player of the World Series – largely because he drove
in the only run scored in that 1-0 White Sox victory in Game 4 that clinched
the World Series title for the Sout’ Siders.

He
then went on to have his best season overall in 2006 – with 44 home runs, 120
runs batted in, a .315 batting average and some votes for American League Most
Valuable Player that year.

NOW
I’M NOT arguing that Dye is a Hall of Famer. Only that he’d probably get some
serious consideration if his time with Oakland, the Kansas City Royals and Atlanta
Braves were as good as he was in Chicago.

He
gets to be an honorary Chicagoan for the fact that he was a White Sox World
Series winner. Unlike Floyd, who is a real-life Chicagoan (born in the city and
raised in suburban Markham) although he now lives in Florida and I recently saw
him as a baseball commentator on the MLB-TV channel that I spend too much time
watching.

Floyd
did play one season with the Chicago Cubs, in 2007 when they made it to the
National League playoffs, but lost His World Series appearances were in 1997
(with the Florida Marlins who defeated the Cleveland Indians) and the Tampa Bay
Rays (who lost to the Philadelphia Phillies).

But
he was the local boy made good who went on to play 17 seasons in the major
leagues after being discovered by professional scouts while playing ball for
Thornwood High School in suburban South Holland.

HE
WAS A three-sport star while there, and led Thornwood to an Illinois state
championship in high school baseball his senior year. Upon graduating in 1991,
he passed on college when the Montreal Expos offered him a chance to play
baseball.

Two
years later, he was in the major leagues, beginning the trek that saw him play
for seven ball clubs and be a part of the National League All-Star team in 2001.

None
of that may make him worthy of a bronze plaque in Cooperstown. But it’s certainly
much more than many guys, I’m sure, would give their male organ up in order to
receive.

And
it’s the closest Chicago sports fans will get to having a local tie to this
year’s Hall of Fame speculation – unless you want to get worked up once again
over arguing whether or not Sammy Sosa should EVER be honored for all those
home runs he hit that made Cubs fans over a decade ago wet their pants with
glee.

I am a Chicago-area freelance writer who has reported on various political and legal beats. I wrote "Hispanic" issues columns for United Press International, observed up close the Statehouse Scene in Springfield, Ill., the Cook County Board in Chicago and municipal government in places like Calumet City, Ill., and Gary, Ind. For a time, I also wrote about agriculture. Trust me when I say the symbolic stench of partisan politics (particularly when directed against people due to their ethnicity) is far nastier than any odor that could come from a farm animal.